Born in Rasht, Gilan, in the North of Iran Marjan Samie studied Graphic Design in high school, and Painting and Visual Arts at university. After graduation, she taught at a college for a while, and for several years worked for IRIB Khalije Fars, in Bandar Abbas (Persian Gulf). Although she moved away from art it was always in her and in free time she was doing illustration that presented current problems of the world. After several years she decided to give up her 9 to 5 job to pursue her dream as an artist.
Marjan is not only illustrating, and sketching, she also takes photographs and through photography and a method of photomontages she tries to narrate the story about things that she does not agree with. One of her latest work is Red Suffocation.
As much as Red can be a reminder of the sweet taste and aroma of red apples at parties, it can also be a reminder of Suffocation! ‘I felt this suffocation when I stood under a plastic canopy at the local fish market in the 45 degree summer heat. Where the remaining fish were full of flies and gave off an unpleasant odour from the heat. The coloured canopy with the power of the sun had made them red and the look of the fish was full of words. “Now you have joined us! Try to breathe under this canopy.” They said. I did it!’
‘In this collection of photomontage, I tried to point out the equality of human and animal status as creatures. And I chose red as a shade of suffocation. The stage where we can feel “corrupted and disintegrated” by death.’
The moment time stops. This stop exists for all creatures. But is death from hunting or trapping enjoyable? In these works, the fish, as our caught creatures, invite humans to think. A symbol of people who sleep in the blood due to oppression and stink because of corruption. Where flies fly around them. The fish in this collection do not complain of being eaten. Instead, they invited us to understand how they felt. Each fish on red space symbolizes a person on blood by cruel.
